In this single comedy, two lovers discover that the financial cost of divorce is considerably more formidable than the emotional turmoil.
Artist Peter (David Buck) and his lover Audrey (Anna Massey) conduct their affair during furtive afternoons in his studio. They decide that the only honest course of action is to divorce their respective spouses, Simon (Moray Watson) and Glenda (Jean Harvey), and build a new life together. Their romantic notions are soon confronted by the sobering arithmetic of separation. As they calculate the cost of alimony, child maintenance, and taxes, Peter realises his comfortable income would be reduced to a fraction of its former self, making their plans seem less like a fresh start and more like a financial catastrophe.
Written by playwright Stanley Price, this topical comedy treats the subject of marital breakdown not as a tragedy, but as a complex and expensive business transaction. Broadcast in the same year that the landmark Divorce Reform Act was passed in Britain, the play sidesteps moral judgement to concentrate on the unromantic, practical consequences of infidelity. The drama is built on the cynical realisation that while passions may run high, it is the financial settlements that prove to be the real impediment to happiness. This pragmatic, almost farcical approach to a sensitive subject marks the piece as a modern comedy of manners for an increasingly secular age.
Broadcast: ITV – Anglia, 1 Episode, 04 January 1969
Written by: Stanley Price
Director: Cyril Coke
Producer: John Jacobs
Main Cast: Anna Massey (Audrey), David Buck (Peter), Moray Watson (Simon), Jean Harvey (Glenda), Gillian Fairchild (Lucy Browning), Keneth Thornett (Harold Curtis), Sarah Brackett (Joyce Carlton), Amelia Bayntun (Doris), Sally Sanders (Joan)
